St. Landry democrat., 1887-12-24
GOLD DISCOVERIES.
Large Quantities of the Precious Mets4
Found in Wales.

The London st. .Jumes Gazette has Gre
ated a great sensation by publishing
careful story from Wales giving the par
ticulars of great gold discoveries there
1t says that if the antcipations at present
formed of the discovery are realized it
will prove of the greatest importance not
only to Wales but to the whole country.
The gold has been found in the MaWd
daCh valley, about five miles from Dol
gelly, Merionethshre. One of the hills
the Cader Idris, has been pierced and a
lode of quartz extraordinarily rich in
gold has been found. There is every in
dicaton of the presence of gold bearing
strata of almost indefinite extent The
fortunate owner Of the property isN William
Pritchard Morgan, of Brynticion, Dol
gelly, and of Queen Victoria street, Lon
don. Morgan has had long experience
in gold mining in Australia, and about
four years ago he got the impression
that gold probably existed in the place
where it has now been found. Having
made some experiments, he decided four
or five months ago to begin systematic
operations. He engaged 100 men and set
them at work to bore into the side Of the.
hill about halfway above the level Of
the river which flows through the val
ley, and after penetrating about l = feet
they came upon a vein of quartz, in
specimens Of which gold could be
plainly seen.
They had struck the lode diagonally
and have now been carried across it for
distance of eighty feet. The lode was
found to be twenty-five feet thick, and
there are 100 feet of it above the level Of
the boring. To what depth it may de
scend into the heart of the hill is not
known, but it is reported that the deeper
they go the richer the ore becomes
Besides this lode another Ut ,ixly-slx
feet in thickness has been found, and
there are good indications of a third
Ihe first lode has been so thoroughly
stripped that about $4,000 tons of ore
are actually in sight Morgan has already
stacked about $500 tons ready for treat
ment, and of this great part is esti
mated by William Crookes, F. R. S, to
yield six ounces to the ton from the
stone already tested.
The lowest calculations point to an
average or two ounces to the ton, which
would quite justify the opinions ex-
pressed as to the magnitude of the dis
covery The region over which the gold
bearing quartz is believed to extend has
an area of two or three miles, but as gold
has for generations been found in the
beds of Welsh rivers and in pockety form
over large areas of the principality, it is
probable that deeper and Systematic
working, as in Mawddach valley, would
yield equally surprising results else
where. AS to the future of this under
taking, it may be said that upon Nor
gans property forty-two lodes are dis
tinctly indicated, and that upon his op-
erations down to the present he has
spent between $4,000 and $4,000.
Finch Hatton, who has visited the
mines, says that he was struck with the
appearance of the country as a gold
bearingone. In Queensland the dis
coyery of such a field, he says, would
have been made long ago, and had it
taken place in the colony $4,000 men
would have been on their way to it by
this time. The gold is found in Wales, as
in Queensland, at the junction of the
Cambran and Silurian period, that is, of
igneous and aqueous rock. No Qppor-
tunity will be offered to the public of
investing in the new enterprise.